US act UNIFIED PAST was formed back in 1999. The roots of the band go back to the early 80's, when Stephen Speelman and Victor Tassone started working together in various band projects, and then formed their own in 1990. This band, named Labyrinth, were active throughout the 1990's, and released three full length albums.

I got in touch with the band and Steve Speelman answered my questions.

Your biography has been covered in your
ProgArchives profile so let's bypass the biography details. But why did you
choose that name and which bands were you influenced by ?

We were, and still are, influenced by progressive heavy
weights such as Yes, Rush, Genesis and Kansas yet were also influenced by more
metal edged acts such as Queensryche, Iron Maiden and King's X. We chose the
name Unified Past for two reasons - 1st: we hoped to create a sound with our
music that reflected our love for the past as well as the present. 2nd: For our
debut CD we re-recorded a few concert favorites from our earlier works when we
were known in the United States as Long Island's Labyrinth. We thought this
would help a new audience get familiar with our larger body of work, so we also
viewed our new CD as a unification of our past and
present.

How was the music scene in your local area when
you started ?

In 1992 when we released our debut CD, "Breaking Up the
Atmosphere", the New York scene was in a bit of a transition. The change of the
drinking age to 21 several years earlier began that change. Music itself was
changing too - the Seattle grunge movement had begun, as an example. New York
was always a good audience for progressive rock acts but it seemed there were
less of us out there and we found it challenging to play shows with bands of a
similar style. Too often we played gigs with bands whose music was worlds apart
from ours and this alienated our audience to their sound and their audience to
our sound, so at times it was difficult to grow our fan
base.

Over to your two albums. Your debut album was From
the Splintered Present Surfaces...The Unified Past from 1999. Please tell us
more about this album.

It started in 1997 when I spent over a year assembling a new
lineup for Long Island's Labyrinth. In late 1998 the new lineup recorded
"Endangered Species". We had a release party in New York and had a bit of
excitement brewing over the release. At this point in time the internet was in
it's beginning stages so we got ourselves our 1st web site. This World Wide Web
truly was amazing - within a few weeks we discovered the Italian band
"Labyrinth". This was an obvious problem for us. It made no sense to continue
under that name if we were going to try to reach an audience beyond the United
States. So after a few weeks and about 500 copies sold, we scrapped the project.
Shortly thereafter we were signed to Atomik Records and released "From The
Splintered Present Surfaces…" in late 1999. This was a whole new recording,
produced by Long Islander Chris Pati, and it featured side 1 of "Endangered
Species", three brand new songs, and three fan favorites from our earlier
days.

And then there was a ten years long break. What
happened ?

We spent the early part of 2000 promoting our disc and
trying to re-establish ourselves in the music arena. The change in our name hurt
us more than we anticipated and it was like we were starting over, even in our
home state. Then our drummer, Matt Wood, was severely hurt in a freak
landscaping accident. He was hit by a bobcat and it crushed his leg. Now what?
We really didn't want another drummer, we wanted Matt to get better. But it
wasn't looking good for his leg. Atomik records did everything they could to
find us a drummer. We auditioned many great drummers but the chemistry just
wasn't there, probably in part because we didn't want it to be there. My wife
was also several months pregnant with our 1st child. It suddenly felt like it
was time to "Get A Haircut and Get a Real Job". I barely played my guitar for
the next 6 years.

Your second and most recent album is Tense from
2009. Please tell us more about this
album.

I moved my family to Syracuse New York and suddenly my situation was so
much better for playing music. The itch returned quickly. So I began
constructing a studio in my basement and began writing new material. The
material flowed pretty quickly. As fate would have it, I also started talking
again with original drummer Victor Tassone and he was itching too. So after
Victor was on board we started recording a ton of material. We then recruited
original vocalist Steve Calovi and he took over for me with the vocals. We tried
hard to get original bassist Mike Donohue on board as well as our last bass
player Pete Palmieri but both were involved in other bands. Since I didn't know
anyone in Syracuse yet, I just handled the bass parts. Vinny Krivacsy played
keys for us on several songs but was too far away to do the whole project and
was also committed to some solo work at the time. Tense is a wonderful work.
Because it was a studio effort and there was so much music that needed to come
out it was the type of CD I always wanted to do. I was able to layer many
guitars in the studio and I really tried to emulate the layering of acoustic
guitars and electric guitars in the style of Jimmy Page and Alex Lifeson. There
are some great musical passages in there. On this disc I began experimenting
with a King Crimson type linear approach to phrases instead of using chord
progressions. Because of the 9 year gap though, we rushed certain aspects of the
disc. Looking back we could have left off a track or two to improve the flow of
the disc. It is 70 minutes long.

What is the availability of your albums ? Where
can they be purchased from ?

Tense can be purchased directly from us at our websiteor through
Melodic Revolutions Records.
Our other three recordings - "Breaking Up The Atmosphere", "Power Of Existence"
and "From The Splintered Present Surfaces" can be purchased electronically at
just about any digital download site - Itunes, Amazon.com, Rhapsody, etc.

For those of us unknown with your music; how would
you describe you music and which bands would you compare yourself with ?

Our music continues to
evolve. Way back, everyone said we sounded like Rush. I do not think so anymore.
I would say we play a style of progressive rock that is progressive more in mood
and feel than it is in difficult licks and crazy jams (Which I love, by the way)
I think our new music leans more towards Porcupine Tree and Spock's Beard than
Dream Theater, as an example.

What have you been up this year, what is your
plans for this year and beyond ?

We have been recording our
follow up to "Tense" - it is called "Observations". 11 songs and 65 minutes
which continues to find us evolving. Due to the personal content of several of
the songs, I am singing on this disc, as I did on "From The Splintered Present
Surfaces". The cd is due out in July - stay tuned. We are very excited about
this project. A lot of time and energy has been spent. Our producer, Frank
Tassone, has made a huge impact on this recording and has even helped control my
writing excursions at times! We are already working on new material and would
really love to turn this two piece into a band. We are currently looking for a
bass player and a keyboardist to help us complete our next project and
eventually get out live again.

To wrap up this interview, is there anything you
want to add to this interview ?

We made a video on you
tube of us performing Emerson, Lake and Palmer's song "From The Beginning". We
did it just for fun and it came out cool. Check it out and please stop by our
web site. We love to hear from our fans - you're what keeps us going!

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot create polls in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum